For a given occasion, namely the Cavallo article on Tamed Wild Horses: Criticism of Mustang Makeover, I have blogged here again the Facebook article I sent to all sponsors of this terrible event in 2019.
On the Mustang Makeover Part I
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This goes out to all the sponsors
Josera, Horse and Rider International Equestrian Travel, Lufthansa Cargo, Hippodung, Munich and Magdeburg Agricultural Insurance, Mustang Heritage Foundation, Pferde Magazin, Haftpflicht Helden, Lösdau, BlueHors, Animalon, Royal Horsemen, Stiefel, HET Elastomertechnik, Equimero, Trufcord, Uswe j. Badt, Sylvia Hengelein, Taste, huf24.com, Steffen Loos, Equus Fotographie, Argus Reisen, farrier Dennis Czudzewitz, Thermologic Vision, EMO trans, girroxx, heukauf.de and Western Inn.
To the American Mustang Germany,
You write your philosophy.
About how you want to save the mustangs because their habitat and food is getting scarce.
And you know this from official sources namely from the BLM.
Half of what they write here is lies and the other half is based on information that can be immediately refuted if you sit down with people who are seriously doing something to protect the mustang in the US:
What is the BLM?
The BLM (Bureau of Land Management) is riddled with ranchers and companies who have an interest in using the land that was set aside for mustangs for cattle ranching and farming. The BLM has an economic interest in driving the wild mustangs and burros off their land.
Horses captured by the BLM are in deplorable condition and are corralled by this agency in the worst conditions and hunted and captured with helicopters.
Many foals and pregnant mares do not survive this torture.
Here is a report from a sanctuary that really cares about the condition of the mustangs.
On their Facebook page is the official document.
Skydog Sanctuary
17. Juni um 21:35
Today I finally received the information I requested through a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) on how many Warm Springs horses have died at Burns Corrals since October when they were rounded up. The results are heartbreaking to me.
Since October when these horses were gathered, 42 are reported as dying at the corrals, most shot for injuries, some of old age, birthing complications, blindness, low body scores (starvation), and a whole host of unknown or undiagnosed deaths.
That is 7 per month. 2 per week.
For me it brings up all the sadness again of our being told we can no longer rescue special needs horses from this corrals. There are many amongst this number that had special needs but were euthanized for them. Three blind horses which we would have been happy to take. A two year old horse with a physical defect or deformity who we would have been happy to give sanctuary to.
17 horses injured themselves acutely and suddenly, suffering spinal cord, neck or back, leg or pelvis breaks, or brain injuries. All seventeen of these listed would have run into panels or run into steel gates or injured themselves in this unfamiliar environment, running scared or panicked, and all would have been shot.
There are four horses who died due to “body condition, unable to maintain or improve”. I don’t understand this at all. We have brought many mustangs in their 20’s back to health after starvation, and two of the ones listed are babies. Why do horses being fed in a corral have such poor body conditions that they have to be euthanized, or did they simply starve to death?
Two horses born in 1998 died of old age. They were 20 years old !!
And 14 of the horses who died at the corrals died of “unknown, undiagnosed” reasons.
I am trying really hard not to sound outraged but inside a part of me is screaming. Five percent of these beautiful, magnificent, sentient beings rounded up in October have been killed at the corrals and that is on top of the 32 who were killed during the roundup. Shot for a variety of pre-existing conditions – these horses were surviving and living on a range that is not always kind. It really is survival of the fittest in the wild and if they could survive being run by helicopters into a trap why did they have to be shot?
Most of the legislation that is now in place to protect our wild horses centers around the roundups, as the death tolls are so high. But we need to also hold the BLM accountable for the high numbers of unnecessary deaths in holding pens and the amount of horses being euthanized when there are other options. As a wild horse facility ourselves, do you really think we would keep our non-profit status if we had 2 horses a week dying as a result of our care, or lack of care, for them?
I have heard staff at the BLM say that these are wild animals and that ‘shit happens’ but why does so much of it happen and why is it the horses who are paying the ultimate price for being taken off the range. How many of these horses were actually marked to return to their homeland but sadly won’t ever run free again.
This number is why I fought so hard to get Elsa and her twins to safety. I could not be happier that they are still alive but credit for those babies health goes entirely to their mother, not the corrals they are held in. For anyone who says that they don’t need rescuing because they are not at risk – all the horses in holding pens are at risk. And now with a spay study still a looming possibility how many of those beautiful mares are going to be added to this list.
I understand the limitations that staff and directors have in managing wild horses in short term holding, and I understand that these mortality rates are normal for them. But when three horses are being offered an alternative to this it seems even more outrageous, cruel and inhumane not to take it. All of the horses, every single one, that we have adopted or bought from the Burns Corrals since we began, every one of them is alive and healthy today.
So again we make our offer for Elsa and her twins to come to Skydog Sanctuary and again we politely and humbly request that we are notified of special needs horses and are allowed to take them to our sanctuary to live out their lives as we believe that their lives matter. Every single one of them matters. To us.
What is really behind the charade of Mustang Make Over
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By working with the BLM, you are in no way ensuring the preservation of mustangs in the wild, you are supporting agricultural interests and thus the extinction of the animals.
Don’t hide behind lies and do-gooding. They are not interested in the preservation of the mustangs, they have only found a way to offer a platform to people in need of recognition and to pull the money out of the pockets of naive and uneducated viewers and to enrich themselves personally.
I find it horrible how they transplant animals that have grown up in freedom and in the expanses you cite, into living conditions that are a ridiculous imitation of what they are used to from birth.
And don’t tell them about the invisible bond.
Their bond is visible to all and that is money.
Perhaps some trivia worth knowing about what the BLM and other official agencies in the US are doing in terms of their credibility and the protection of mustangs otherwise can be found linked here.
Here are the places that really help
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I am anxious to hear your response and, should they really have an interest in protecting the mustangs here are some addresses where they can send all the money they are taking in on this scam:
National Wild Horse & Burro Administration.
Wild Horse Observers Association.
That’s where those who really care about mustangs sit. Native Americans and volunteer helpers, some of whom try to protect the mustangs by risking their lives.
This was my first post.
Mustang make over Part II
Some time ago I published the protest letter that I sent to the sponsors of the Mustang Make over. You can guess how many have felt addressed!
I would like to praise that the company Josera has contacted me at least 3 times. As the only one.
They emphasized that they had chosen their rider very carefully and that they would find it terrible if “extra” horses were captured for the Mustang make over. They would all already be in completely overcrowded sanctuaries. Thus all sponsors would be actually only with the best intentions and they would only help the Mustangs.
I believe, all those who are interested in this event should take off their blinkers.
As long as the mustangs are free, they are protected wild animals and may not be simply slaughtered or sold.
From protected wild animal to slaughter horse
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Only when the horses are in the holding facilities, they lose this status.
Who captures the wild mustangs and burros and why?
There is an agency in the U.S. called BLM that regulates the granting of land that belongs to no one!! to ranchers (cattle ranchers, horse ranchers, sheep ranchers). However, only large associations of cattle ranchers and sheep ranchers are in charge of the BLM. So you can imagine how much they care about leaving the wild mustangs on land they would much rather use for their cattle and sheep. Nothing.
And animal welfare organizations in the U.S. are screaming right now because tens of thousands of mustangs are being captured and are going to be captured.
And they’re doing it with helicopters and motorcycles. Although that is ILLEGAL according to all statutes and laws. It’s just that no one cares. A condition of independent veterinary surgeons was that at least cameras should be at the helicopters, in order to be able to control the animal protection-legally perfect process of the catch actions.
However, these requirements are not followed.
With bad consequences for the Mustangs. During the capture operations many animals die of white muscle desease, a muscle disease caused by the stress of the capture operation, mares foal while being rounded up by the helicopter and the foals that are born after the capture usually die immediately.
Those who know English can read quite a bit about the issue in this petition to protect mustangs.
https://www.change.org/…/congress-aspca-et-al-plan-for…
National Wild Horse & Burro Administration
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And I can only recommend you again and again the page National Wild Horse & Burro Administration.
There you can also read again and again that most adoptions fail because the animals can not be housed appropriately. But the BLM doesn’t care, because they already got the money for the mustangs.
That is what you should realize. The money that the sponsors of the Mustang Make over pay to the BLM to “rescue” the mustangs from the sanctuaries, they use to catch more mustangs.
Stop trapping mustangs
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Why should they stop doing that, too.
On the one hand, they are clearing the land for their cattle, which produce a nice amount of methane and are resold as expensive meat (remember that the next time you proudly stuff your face with American beef in a restaurant, a few mustangs will die miserably for it).
And on the other hand the BLM earns money by selling the captured mustangs to misguided animal rights activists. Who then make a name for themselves by making such a poor animal rideable in a few weeks.
And because the Mustangs could be sold so beautifully so far always and mediated for money, now also still private catching stations are permitted, which are still worse controlled. In addition, the mustangs may then also be sold to butchers, once they have been in private sanctuaries.
So: continue to have fun with your Mustang Make over.